Toughest Gun Laws In America

CHICAGO — Extra police officers on Chicago’s streets weren’t enough to quell a long weekend of violence that ended with 14 people shot to death and dozens more injured.

During a Monday news conference, just hours after two more people were shot to death earlier in the day, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said his department’s best efforts could not prevent the bloodshed that spiked dramatically on Sunday. Chicago’s total of 53 shooting incidents for the holiday weekend easily eclipsed Detroit and New York combined, which had a total of 46 shooting incidents, 10 of which were fatal.

I wonder how many extra officers they really had. From my experience it’s hard enough to keep regular staffing levels on holiday weekends during the summer, let alone extra staff. It really doesn’t matter though, as it’s an obvious failure. Maybe if the City of Chicago spent less time, money, and effort trying to keep the law abiding from getting firearms, they’d be able to concentrate on arresting bad guys.

The shootings over the Fourth of July holiday weekend included eight incidents that involved police, according to McCarthy. In five of those instances, officers shot at suspects. Two people — both 16 — were killed in those shootouts. McCarthy said that based on preliminary investigations, all of the officer-involved shootings appear to have been justified, including one in which officers fired after a suspect who tried to run them over with his car.

No doubt the people who want to ban guns will include those who were killed in shoot outs with the police a “victims of gun violence”.

McCarthy, who came to the nation’s third-largest city from New York, used the opportunity to again highlight the number of guns that are on Chicago’s streets. While Chicago has tough gun sales and possession ordinances, McCarthy maintains that Illinois needs stiffer penalties for people who violate gun laws.

Alternate theory: Laws that make it less likely that honest citizens will be armed make it more likely that criminals will own and use guns.

A federal court is ordering the city of Chicago to pay the National Rifle Association nearly $1 million in legal fees.

The NRA had challenged a Chicago law banning gun sales within the city limits that a federal court ruled unconstitutional in January.
Chicago also paid the NRA $600,000 in legal fees following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 ruling that the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms applies to the states.

If my memory isn’t too faulty, Chicago also paid the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) just about $400,000.00 in legal fees a couple of years ago.

Too bad the City isn’t as interested in arresting criminals as it is in harassing law abiding citizens.

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All About Me

After a long career as a field EMS provider, I'm now doing all that back office stuff I used to laugh at. Life is full of ironies, isn't it?
I still live in the Northeast corner of the United States, although I hope to change that to another part of the country more in tune with my values and beliefs.
I still write about EMS, but I'm adding more and more non EMS subject matter.
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